Crew members of Shenzhou-14, China's previous manned space mission, are expected to touch down at Dongfeng landing site in North China on the night of December 4, the China Manned Space Agency said on Saturday.

The weather of the crew's return window is reported to reach minus 15 degree Celsius. The site's search and rescue teams, which had successfully conducted recoveries of the Shenzhou-12 and Shenzhou-13 crews, are ready to stretch out their capabilities for cold winter night rescue. 

The team is an integrated aerial-land search and rescue unit with five helicopters and some 60 search vehicles on the ground along with 10 more search and rescue teams. Together, they had performed a joint rehearsal on Thursday night.

Their vehicles and searching equipment have been modified with thermal insulation properties two weeks ahead of the return, and the helicopters are also swapped with high-power searchlights for better night view.

"We've strengthened training in advance to have a better understanding of the geography and weather for this mission, and both of our pilots and equipment are ready," Chen Shi, leader of the aerial search and rescue team, told China Media Group.

The command center has also improved on communication methods for better location of the capsule's landing point so that the astronauts won't wait long after the touchdown. 

Tracking the spacecraft

Currently there are two identical Shenzhou spaceships docked at China's space station. Therefore, tracking the correct returning spacecraft is a new challenge for the ground team.

On the one hand, the spaceships are differentiated through identification numbers and would establish communication with its relay satellites through encrypted keys and pseudo codes.

On the other hand, each spaceship has its designated communication channel for data transmission to ensure that the ground team sends orders to the correct vehicle.

The Shenzhou spaceships are designed to operate in orbit for around six months. So, the Shenzhou-14 crew will board the same spacecraft that they used for docking as they are most familiar with the settings inside.